Love Boat Captain
"Love Boat Captain" (LBC) is the third song of the seventh Pearl Jam's album, Riot Act. The song lyrics were written by Eddie Vedder and its music was procuced not only by him, but together with keyboardist Boom Gaspar. The songs is the most expressive of the album while singing about the theme of love as a higher salvation, also dealing with existentialism. Analysis The song is a deep and strong lyric where a protagonist founds himself/herself in another hidden and obscure day, as said by the character, a "God forgotten place". This leading figure sings about the mishaps of sailing into love, being aboard of a boat commanded by Love itself. At the beginning everything is beautiful, but then things become dark; questions began to appear and answers are lost and both events happen with no control. By the way, it is just a game for the protagonist, maybe in the context of being a repetitive sequence with the same rules and the same consequences. In this chaos of indecisions and doubts, the protagonist asks the Captain of the boat to steer towards the clear, and paraphrasing The Beatles in a song that "already been sung" (All You Need Is Love), he afirms that love is the only salvation. It is possible that the phase of darkness is caused by the disilusion of a past love, and to cure the pain and insecurity, only giving a short break (the clear) and another love can save everything. The songs develops itself like in the way of the boat sailing through love, relating earthquakes and waves to the difficulties of the lack of love or even its presence, but everything is connected to the feeling. Stubborn, human beings try things that are impossible on his/her vision, only yielding to love and holding its hand will ease everything. The main character asks for love to hold him/her to be safe, because when everything is down, Love will be there, since the only thing that matters for the protagonist is love. To live with pain, merging good and bad moments, is an art. At this moment, the lead figure sings the pain of losing nine friends he will never know (a reference from Vedder of the nine fans who died on the Roskilde tragedy) and questions if will be more regrets if life gets any longer, stating proportionality. Stating that the elder can teach precious knowledge to the younger, once the first ones have passed through lots of situations worst than the youth, and these ones believe their problems are the biggest. The main character realizes that this problem is not the biggest, and life has not abandoned him/her, at the least not this time, because there's love. In the end, once again, the protagonist finds himself/herself lost on the boat, maybe by unrequited or, ironically, by problems love can cause, and asks again to the Captain to steer towards the clear. Finishing the song, and referring to All You Need Is Love, the lead figure says that it never gets old saying that the only salvation is love. Music & Lyrics Is this just another day? This god forgotten place' F''irst comes love and then comes pain, let the games begin Questions rise and answers fall, insurmountable Love boat captain, take the reigns and steer us towards the clear, here It's already been sung, but it can't be said enough All you need is love Is this just another phase? of earthquakes making waves Trying to shake the cancer off? oh, stupid human beings Once you hold the hand of love, it's all surmountable Hold me and make it the truth That when all is lost there'll be you Cuz to the universe, i don't mean a thing And there is just one word i still believe And it's love... It's an art to live with pain, mix the light into grey Lost nine friends we'll never know, two years ago today And if our lives became too long, would it add to our regret? And the young they can lose hope Cuz they can't see beyond today... The wisdom that the old can't give away, hey Constant recoil Sometimes life don't leave you alone Hold me and make it the truth That when all is lost there will be you Cuz to the universe, i don't mean a thing And there is just one word and i still believe And it's love... love, love, love, love Love boat captain, take the reigns, steer us towards the clear I know it's already been sung, it can't be said enough Love is all you need... all you need is love Love, love... Gallery 2013-05-24 21.36.18.jpg|Love Boat Captain LBC.jpg|Common logo for ''Love Boat Captain. As many references and parodies used on Pearl Jam's and band members' logos, this one makes reference to TCB, which means Taking Care of Business a motto used by Elvis Presley and his colleagues (commonly referred as The Memphis Maphia) on the 70's. Category:Songs Category:Riot Act